Tough Love
by Lives-In-2D
Summary: Tenzou meets the girl of his dreams but it's an unrequited love for almost five years. Warning: Lime Re-written and changed version of "Lazy Eyes" which I've deleted. Summary sucks and maybe the story does too...a little bit.


**This is not really a new story, it's just an edited version - READ: Edited, NOT LESS CRAPPY - of my one-shot "Lazy Eyes". It sucked ass, really sucked, I was like thirteen when I wrote it. Not that being fifteen makes me any better, but it gives me the improvement and wisdon of two extra years xD**

**Well, whatever. I really want to thank the TWO people who reviewed it so sweetly - "**extra type**" and "**whisperedthreats**" - thank you so much!**

**This redone version is dedicated to **whisperedthreats** 'coz she's just cool like that. She was the one who asked me to re-do it and left an awesome critique review! Thank you and I hope you enjoy it!!! _ I'm scared, it's mostly the same and it still sucks but it's a TEENSY bit more mature :P**

* * *

**--A YEAR BEFORE THE SOUND INVASION--**

"She'll be here shortly, Tenzou." The old man sitting at the large desk said, smiling. The tall, masked individual standing opposite the desk smiled back, despite knowing that the man at the desk would be oblivious to the fact.

There was a knock at the door and the Third looked up, "Come in!" he called, gently.

As Tenzou turned around, he saw a bright face pop into view, sticking through the crack in the doorway. "May I come in?" the new entrée asked. Sandaime sighed irritably, but silently nodded his assent

"Good afternoon, Hokage-sama!" the girl said cheerily, bowing her head in respect.

Sarutobi smiled at the girl and said, "Uzuki, this is Tenzou. He will be your guide for the next 2 weeks and help you with the missions and other matters while you are in the training period for ANBU." she said, pushing the reluctant Black Op towards the bubbly kunoichi.

"Oh wow, thank you Hokage-sama, Tenzou-san!" She bowed to both of them. "I can't believe I'm actually being considered for joining the ANBU!" she said, lunging forward and shaking his hand.

_Neither can I!_ The silent shinobi thought wryly.

"Hokage-sama, I promise I won't let you down, and I will try my best!" she continued, leaning forward onto the table and nearly upsetting a glass of water onto the documents. "Whoops! Sorry, I'll--"

"Err…let's go, Uzuki-san. Hokage-sama must have a lot of work and must be really busy. Let's go to the training fields." Tenzou said, knowing that the quiet old man didn't have the heart to tell-off the newbie.

"Oh, yes of course. Thank you and sorry again!" she said, surprisingly taking the hint and smiling graciously at them both and bowing out of the room, Tenzou following silently.

"Oh my God, I'm such an idiot!" she groaned as they leapt from rooftop to rooftop. "I wanted to make a good impression on the Third too, oh I messed up!"

"It's alright, it's not a big deal. Hokage-sama's really cool about stuff like that." the brown haired man assured her gruffly, not really sure why he bothered.

"It's easy for you to say, you're so dignified and strong and all. I'm just some clumsy newcomer." she hung her head sadly.

"I'm actually kinda new too, just joined a year and a half ago. I'm just 22." he shared tonelessly.

"No way! I'm just a year younger than you? Your attitude and personality makes you seem almost 30!" she laughed.

"Is that so?" he said, just for the heck of it, glad that she'd finally stopped whining.

They soon reached a large clearing and he landed gracefully, as did she. "We have to spar, Uzuki-san." He informed her.

"Why do we _have _to?' she looked confused.

"Okay, so we don't **have **to, I just need to test your abilities."

"Oh, well that's fine by me!" she said enthusiastically.

They squared off each other, in the center of the field, she grinned at him, and involuntarily, he smiled back. Then she frowned.

"Can you do me a favour?" She asked, dropping her stance.

"What is it?" he asked her, sighing softly.

"Take off your mask."

"Huh?" he asked again. That was unexpected.

"I want to see your face." She said, folding her arms across her chest.

"Why?" he said, curiously.

"I want to know who I'm defeating." she smirked.

"Hmph. We'll see about that." He rolled his eyes, enjoying the playful banter.

"Yeah well. Could you please remove your mask now?"

"Yeah, okay. Whatever." He sighed, knowing she wouldn't shut up until he did, and pulled off his mask.

She stared at him for a full minute in silence, then went, "Hmm...you're definitely not thirty, but you don't look twenty-two either."

"Really, Uzuki-san?" he was losing his patience.

"Oh sorry," she whipped out a kunai, "I didn't mean to waste time like that, sorry."

"Let's be--"

"Loser treats the winner at the nearest bar!" she interrupted again; he sighed and nodded. "And call me Yuugao please!"

She regretted the bet later, when she discovered just how much her senpai could eat.

**--THREE YEARS AFTER THE SOUND INVASION--**

"Okay, so I have to buy some miso, tomatoes, milk..." Tenzou counted the items in his head as he walked down the busy street. Looking down while walking, he bumped into someone who lost her balance and fell on him.

"Whoa!" she shouted as she fell on him, he stayed still barely affected by her weight.

"Are you okay?" he asked, helping the girl up. "Oh! It's you, Yuugao?"

"That tone indicates you wish it was someone else," she laughed. "How's things, Tenzou?"

"Ah, I'm doing fine. ANBU hasn't been getting any good missions for awhile now, though." he complained as they began walking together.

"I know, it SUCKS! And they've been giving me all these random solo-missions which are totally pointless, a Genin could do them!" she growled.

"Yeah, it's been a long time since I've hung out with the team. I miss Kakashi-senpai, he was so fun." He said, nostalgically.,

"Yeah, I wish we could meet more often too." she randomly checked her watch and started. "Oh crap! I'm sorry, I have to go - stupid mission!. See ya around!"

He stared at her retreating back sadly. They'd barely spoken for twenty minutes and she already had to leave. Over time as he'd got to know her, as they began working together, Tenzou had slowly been falling for the purple-haired beauty. However, he realized that she would never look at him in THAT way, especially not so soon after Hayate's death. Three years wasn't long enough to get over the demise of a love one, he knew it was hard.

* * *

_It's getting late; I'd better be getting home._ Tenzou thought, consulting his wristwatch. Naruto had not trained with him for a few days, and he had a lot of spare time on his hands. Walking down to the local bar was one of the ways of passing time that he had assigned to himself. _I'll just get some sake and then go home..._

Apparently, a lonely night of drinking seemed more appealing than a lonely night of just…well, sleeping.

Within minutes, he reached the boisterous bar and had settled down, nursing a tiny cup in his hands. By the time he'd finished his eighth shot, he was still sober. He raised his hand to ask for another glass, when he noticed a slumped figure at the end of the long bar. Her purple hair was up in a pony and her fingers tapped on the glass in her hand; she looked exhausted.

"Yuugao?" He called, receiving no response. "Yuugao?" He tried again, loudly. Still no response.

He got up and walked over to her and poked her cautiously. The only time he'd seen her drink was when she'd tried drowning her sorrows after her lover died, and she'd cringed at the taste. So why would she drink now? He poked her again, and this time she stirred.

"Yuugao?" he asked again, gently. "Are you alright?"

"What-? Oh yeah, I'm fine. I just fell asleep waiting..." she mumbled and rubbed her eyes.

"You weren't drinking though, were you?" he asked worry clouding his eyes. She smiled back and suddenly dropped her head back on her arms.

Alarmed, he tried to prod her awake, but to no avail. Gingerly, he touched her cheek. _WHOA! She's burning up!_

Slapping a few bills onto the counter, he picked her up and left the overcrowded bar, scared for her health.

* * *

His house was closer. So it was obvious they'd go there. It had seemed to be the correct option when he had decided, but now he wasn't so sure, looking at her sprawled across his couch. He turned away again, and poured some tea for them. He'd already placed a damp cloth on her forehead and her taken her temperature, which wasn't as bad as he'd thought. It was slowly improving.

As he set down the cups in front of her, she groaned softly and opened her eyes, blinking as she took in her surroundings.

"You're up, I'm glad." he said, helping her sit up and handing her the hot drink.

"Uh, thanks." she murmured. "Why am I here?"

"You passed out at the bar downtown. I was worried, so I brought you here." he answered.

"I passed out...?!" she gasped, looking hoirrifed. "B-but I didn't drink! I was just waiting for--"

"You had a fever, don't worry!" he smiled. "Did you overwork yourself again?"

"Ugh, I dunno. Just got back from a mission yesterday and didn't get much sleep..." she trailed off. "I should go home, I don't want to impose--"

"

She tried to get up but lost her balance and Tenzou grabbed her arm to stop her from falling. Straightening up, he noticed that they were standing extremely close. He blushed and her face mirrored the pinkness of his. Slowly, her arm snaked up his neck and pulled him down into a soft kiss. He was really confused, but also vaguely excited that she was doing this.

_It's the fever working...Yuugao isn't normally like this. I should stop her before things get bad!_

"Yuugao...no." he whispered softly, pushing her away. She looked up at him in confusion. "You don't know what you're doing. This isn't right."

"Why not?" she whispered, grabbing his head on either side of his face. "I'm concious, fully aware of my actions."

He didn't know how to answer to that and the silence only served to increase her blush.

"Uh, it's me - Tenzou." he attempted to sound like he normally would have. He didn't want her to wake up and find she'd made a huge mistake.

"Yes, I know." she said, sounding very serious suddenly. Drawing his eyebrows down together over his eyes, he looked at her quizically.

"But..." he trailed off. "You're dizzy from the fever...you don't feel the same as I do! You love Ha--"

She stepped away from him and he abruptly halted. He saw her hands clench into tiny fists on either side of her slim frame.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to bring back old memories." He stuttered, flailing wildly, terrified of the situation he'd put them in.

"It's alright, I just...he told me..." she sighed and two fat tears rolled down her cheeks, falling unnocticed by her. "He always told me that if he ever died, I shouldn't close my heart. I didn't want to listen to him, so I tended to close up around people...and then...you were so nice to me, Senpai and always looked out for me...I couldn't help falling for you. It felt like a betrayal to Hayate, so I tried to keep away from you too but..."

She began to cry and he instinctively grabbed her shaking body, pulling it close to his body, whispering soothing words to her. They stayed that way for a while, until her sobs stopped. Taking a step away from Yuugao, he peered at her face, hating the tear stains visible on her pale skin.

Wiping the tears off tenderly, he cupped her small face in his hands and said, "I've loved you for a long time, why else would I go out of my way to--"

Once again, she silenced him with her lips adn pulled away shyly. He grabbed her waist and pulled her closer, lenaing down to capture her lips again; and it was different from the previous kiss. It was deeper and had more feeling, more emotions. Moaning softly, as though she'd been craving this forever, she raised herself on her toes and decreased the distance between them. Tenzou kissed her back hungrily, returning her passion touch for touch. As they kissed, he picked her up and carried her to the bedroom. He dropped her onto his neatly-made bed, helping her remove her cumbersome layers of clothing. His came off soon enough and their bodies tangled in the sheets, messing them up.

* * *

"You got to be on top twice! What about me?" Tenzou complained to the pale slim girl lying beside him, under the dark sheets.

"Well...since, thanks to your stupid alarm, we got up SO early - you can have a go. See what it's like for a change." she teased him ruthlessly.

"Hey!" he yelped in mock-anger, but she giggled happily and pulled him into a hug, which evolved into a kiss and...

...Well, Tenzou got to be on top...just this once.

* * *

**Yeah, it's basically the same with a different girl-character. The last time it was an OC [I HATE OCs NOW!!!] and this time it's Uzuki Yuugao, the purple-haired ANBU chick who was Hayate Gekkou's lover. Remember the coughing proctor? Remember when Baki killed him? Remember that purplette who said she's avenge his death? Yeah, her. ^_^**

**I hope you liked it! Please review, and yes, critique (as long as it's nicely put) is welcome. Thanks again!!**


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